Marathon Pundit: Other Dems nervous too

Nervous tension, man's invention,
Is the biggest killer that's around today
Let the tension out or it will build and build inside
And strike you down some day
Nervous tension, man's invention
Is the biggest waste of human energy
Let the tension out, or it will surely kill
And that will be a tragedy
The Kinks, "National Health," 1979.

This morning I wrote that the prospect of Alexi Giannoulias as the Democratic nominee of the Senate seat once held by Barack Obama has local Democrats nervous.

Politico is reporting that Dems already in the Senate are also tense--and it has nothing to do with Giannoulias.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid held a meeting the Capitol last week, when someone notice a missing senator--Chuck Schumer (D-NY))

'Where’s Chuck" the person asked.

"He's probably out there talking about me,' Reid quipped.

Reid's remark — conveyed to POLITICO by a person who was in the room — was a reference to Schumer's appearance the night before Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show, where the New York Democrat pressured Reid to accept a Schumer-crafted health care proposal that would create a public option plan but allow states to opt out.

The health care reform bill written by Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) does not have a public option, but it's causing turmoil all the same:

Earlier this month, as the Finance Committee considered more than 500 amendments to Baucus's bill, Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) got into a shouting match with Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, in a private area off the committee room.